The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-10-13

toETo-COtte tSDi0te OI piu-CueuiOu cuup0S
carefully packed away and protected by
. tile covering the mouth Of the jar, and
secured by bitumen. Further search re.
vealed . still larger number Of tablets
scattered around only slight depth be.
low the surface. Atthat time Mr.. George
Smith was engaged at Bagdad in preparing
for his third exploring expedition on be.
half Of the trustees Of the British Museum,
and he examined and selected . COL
lection Of about 5000 Of these interest.
ing documents. The tablets were dis
patched to England, but the learned de-
On the arrival Of the tablets at the
British Museum, they were examined,
chiefly with view to the valuable data
they Afforded for the settlement Of the
chronology Of the Babylonisn empire
from B. O. 625 until the time Of Darius
Hystaspes. A very slight inspection,
however, served to show that most in
teresting series Of inscriptions had been
acquired, admitting 10 into the inner
life Of the Babylon people and dealing
with oil classes Of the varied population
which thronged the streets Of the ancient
capital Of Western Asia.
The majority Of the tablets proved to
be the business papers Of an important
trading family, the descendants Of .
man named Egibi, who for many CEN
turies had been the chief bankers and
6nanciers Of Babylon. The Smith col.
lection consisted Of about 5000 tablets,
and was soon supplemented by large
numbers Of tablets Forwarded by native
antiquity dealers, and the number Of In
s{~,tf &rn~na~nI 90
5000. In the year 1881 still larger COL
was 90 fortunate during his explorations
at Aboo Hubba, the site Of the ancient
city Of Sippara, the Chaldean Heliopolis,
- to discover the record Office Of the
temple, and there to find over $4,000
tablets relating to almost every class Of
commercial, legal, fiscal and private
transaction In Babylonian life, extend.
ing over . period dating from the fall
Of the Assyrian empire until the con.
quest Of Babylon by the Greeks. These
documents arc now stored In the British
Museum, and their value, - a6ording us
the means Of studying the sociology Of
ancient Babylonia, cannot be too highly
estimated. In the Rassam collection the
records Of the Egibi family are very nu.
merous, and the history Of the firm can
be very clearly traced; and proof ID Of.
forded Of their important position in the
financial world Of twenty-five centuries
ago. From these records genealogical
chart Of seven generations can now be
completed, and, - the vast mass Of clay
records 4 gradually, being reduced to
order, still further additions arc rapidly
being made.
The business Of the firm appears to
have resembled very closely that Of the
native bankers Of Egypt and India Of
tho present day. There are large trans.
actions in merchandise and foreign prod
ucts - well - slaves and cattle; but
their chief sources Of wealth appear to
have been two. In the first place they
advanced either seed or the money to
purchase seed to farmers and peasantA
receiving back ct harvest time the
amount advanced, with . liberal incre.
ment either in money or kind. They
also appear to have been the publioani or
tax-farmers, and to have collected both
the taxes due to the government and the
tithes due to the temples; and from the
advance Of money to needy taxpayers .
very large profit was derived, the inter
est being often ~ high - thirty, forty
and even sixty per cent.
In such . varied and complicated bust.
ness e that conducted BY the Egibi firm
It 10 but natural to expect that ntlgations
arose regarding some transactions, and
Of this most Interesting proof has been
found. Among the tablet papers Of the
Arm are two documents dated re-
spectively IN the first year Of Neriglissar
B. O. 660l and the accession year Of
Nabonidus B. @. 65e), which relate to .
lawsuit In which the drm was concerned.
Among the treasures Of the British
Museum are two duplicate copies Of the
minutes Of legal case tried In the city
Of Lara, In South Chaldea, - far back
- B. O. $3.50. This document d too
mutilated for complete translation, but
It appears to record . dispute between
an adopted and atrue son Of man named
6in.magir regarding an estate. The
utigants came before the judges In the
gate Of Nin-MArki, tho west gate of
Lassa. whore the tablet says the judges
hear the statements Of both parties, and
after consulting upon "these matters and
statements" give their decision and
order the property to remain In the
hands OF the adopted son.
These ancient documents show that ct
. very remote period, o. early ~ the days
home, the laws were administered by
In tie sight Of the people dealt out jus-
tice apparently Of 8 very common-sense
kind. The care with which the legal
tablets arc drawn up, and the frequent
statements that the Judges consulted the
precedene established by former cases,
would Lad one TO suspect that the later
Jewish legislators were not uninhuenced
In the compilation Of Talmudic law By
the code Of their Chaldean brethren.